A novel bioarchaeological investigation has uncovered what scholars are calling the initial identified instance of deliberate mummification applied to a child sacrificed during the Inca capacity ritual. This finding stems from computed tomography scans performed on frozen infant mummies recovered from the high Andean peaks, suggesting that in at least one case, the body underwent post-mortem modification, perhaps involving relocation and even a symbolic “restoration.”
The research collective, headed by bioarchaeologist Dagmara Sroka (University of Warsaw), employed CT scanning to examine four naturally preserved child mummies originating from Ampato and Sarasara volcanoes in Peru. This technique exposed injuries, disease markers, and post-burial decomposition that cannot be reliably assessed through visual inspection alone.
Capacocha represented one of the Inca Empire’s paramount state rituals, encompassing the sacrifice of children and young women, frequently at sacred mountain sanctuaries where the altitude, cold, and arid conditions naturally preserved the remains. While Spanish chroniclers documented these ceremonies following the conquest, archaeological examples remain infrequent, making any new scientific scrutiny capable of significantly refining our understanding.
The study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, details the assessment of the preservation, health status, and post-mortem alterations of the four subadult mummies from Ampato and Sarasara, based on CT data. Furthermore, it frames the children as “envoy figures” within Inca cosmology, a role potentially extending beyond their demise if their bodies were subject to re-examination or movement.
Throughout the Andes, prior research has established connections between mountaintop sacrifices, state authority, sacred geographies, and the belief that children could mediate relationships with mountain deities. This backdrop is crucial here, as intentional mummification implies a continuation of the child’s ritual or political utility beyond their death.
CT scans revealed that the children succumbed to head trauma, and one eight-year-old female displayed characteristics consistent with Chagas disease, including an enlarged esophagus and pulmonary calcification. This evidence, noted in the same report, challenges the long-held assertion found in some historical accounts that only “perfect” children were selected.
The most remarkable case involved the mummy designated Ampato 4, where visualization uncovered an anomalous internal structure: displaced bones, missing skeletal elements, and foreign inclusions (stones and probable textiles) within the abdominal cavity. The researchers interpret this as proof of intentional post-mortem manipulation, rather than mere freezing or the passage of time.
Much of the discourse surrounding high-altitude Inca mummies focuses on natural preservation—a body sealed by cold and left undisturbed. However, if one sacrificial victim from the capacocha ritual was deliberately altered after death, it signals a different dynamic between the living community and the sacrificed child: not a singular final outcome, but a perpetually active ritual artifact subject to storage, transit, or reuse.
Sroka’s team links the possibility of relocation to Inca practices involving mit’ima settlements—state-sponsored resettlement—and the movement of sacred relics, including ancestor mummies, to establish ties with new territories. If Ampato 4 was moved and modified, the child’s function as a “messenger” might have entailed the perpetuation of this role long after the initial sacrifice.
Put differently, the central question evolves beyond simply “how the child died” to encompass “what the Inca did with the child afterward”—an inquiry uniquely capable of being raised by CT scanning because it reveals internal disruptions without requiring invasive autopsy procedures.
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